Вступительный письменный экзамен по английскому языку. Учебные материалы, методические указания и рекомендации. Пособие для абитуриентов
.pdfTask 16b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
Ideological Implications of Insistence on English in the Classroom
Although a great deal of teaching in and through English in the early colonial context had been done bilingually — either by teachers who were themselves bilingual or by the use of translators — around the turn of the century, fewer and fewer native speakers were capable of using local languages.
While local teachers still used both languages (and still in Hong Kong and many other parts of the world continue to do so), it was in the colonial context of British teachers and their local subjects that the highly influential English language teaching theories and practices were formed which stressed use of English and only English in the classroom. As Auerbach (1993) argues, the use of only English in classes of English as a second language needs to be understood not so much in terms of its common pedagogical or psycholinguistic considerations but rather in terms of the ideological implications of an insistence on English. Drawing on Phillipson’s (1992) analysis of underlying tenets of English language teaching theory that emerged as part of British neocolonial policy — English is best taught monolingually, by native speakers, as early as possible, as much as possible, and preferably to the exclusion of other languages — Auerbach argues that ‘practices we take for granted as being pedagogically grounded have antecedents in overtly ideological tendencies’.
What I want to argue is that such ideologies and practices have their origins deeply rooted in colonial constructions of English.
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Опоздав на первый поезд, мы были вынуждены ждать на станции около часа.
2)Вот письмо, которое надо доставить немедленно.
3)Он настаивал на том, чтобы я перевела эту статью.
4)Я его не видела с тех пор, как приехала из Крыма.
5)Я ему все расскажу, если только он придет, но я не думаю, чтобы он пришел.
241
Task 17b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
People’s Attitudes to Changes in Word
Meanings
All languages change all the time. It is not very well understood why this is the case, but it is a universal characteristic of human languages. The only languages which do not change are those, like Latin, which nobody speaks. Languages change their pronunciations through time. Five hundred years ago, all English speakers used to pronounce the k in knee — now nobody does. Grammatical structures also change. English speakers used to say ‘Saw you my son?’ Now everybody says ‘Did you see my son?’
A number of people seem to think that the fact that languages change the meanings of their words in this way is unfortunate. They believe that change in language is inherently undesirable and that we should do everything we can to stop it because change can be dangerous and confusing. In particular, any tendency for words to start to mean something which they have not always meant should be resisted.
This leads such people to argue that it makes sense to determine what a word means by looking at its origins — the real meaning of a word. So, for example, they would claim that it is wrong to use ‘aggravate’ to mean ‘irritate’, even though this is its most common use in English, because it comes originally from Latin ‘aggravare’, which meant ‘to make heavier’ and was originally borrowed into English with the meaning ‘to make more serious’. They also would maintain that it is wrong to talk about having three alternatives, because alternative comes from the Latin word ‘alter’, which meant ‘second’, and that nice really means ‘precise’ — and so on.
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Если вы можете уделить мне минуту, помогите мне перевести это предложение.
2)Ты думаешь, ей понравится новый зонтик?
3)Вечно она со всеми ссорится! Я уверена, что по соседству нет ни одного человека, с кем бы она ни разу не поссорилась.
4)Я давно собиралась зайти к вам, да все как-то не было времени.
5)Хозяин гостиницы предупредил меня, что, если моей жене не станет лучше, нам придется съехать.
242
Task 18b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
The Spread of New Language Forms by the Media
The prefix miniprovides a blueprint for the slow beginning and sudden upswing of a typical change. It also illustrates the role of the media. The prefix occurred as early as 1845, when the Scotsman newspaper carried a notice of an ‘important sale of horses, harness, and carriages’, which included ‘one excellent 12-inside omnibus’ and ‘one handsome minibus’, both horse-drawn. A fairly long time elapsed before sporadic other mini-forms arrived in the language: mini-camera came in the 1930s, mini-piano in the 1940s. The prefix therefore gradually crept into the language, like a bit-player in a drama.
Take-off point came in the 1960s when mini-cab, mini-van and other transport words became widely used, alongside clothing words, such as mini-skirt and mini-dress. Then mini-started appearing on other types of word: a mini-boom occurred in economics, a mini-bar became standard in some hotel rooms, mini-computers were widely used, and a writer commented that he must have been out of his mini-mind.
The media nurtured the mini-explosion by reporting the news. Vogue, the fashion magazine, noted mini-skirt first in 1965. Television produced several mini-series. Newspapers also joined in. A total of 125 stories contained a mini-prefix in The Times and Sunday Times in the first three months of 1993, for example.
The media are therefore linguistic mirrors: they reflect current language usage and extend it. Journalists are observant reporters who pick up early on new forms and spread them to a wider audience.
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Если бы была хорошая погода, мы пошли бы на каток.
2)«А где они сейчас? Ты с ними переписываешься?» — «Да, конечно. Но что-то давно от них не было писем».
3)Я думаю, что ты простудился.
4)Старик спрашивает, не мог бы ты перевести этот текст.
5)Если бы у него было время, он бы нас навестил.
243
Task 19b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
The Stature of English on the Information
Superhighway
Although computer languages are not like natural languages, being very restricted, they have inevitably been greatly influenced by the mother tongue of the programmers — and this has largely been English. The first computer operating systems automatically used English vocabulary and syntax, as can be seen in such instructions as ‘Press any key when ready’. This is an example from MS (Microsoft) DOS, the system developed in 1977 by Bill Gates. The more recent operating systems, replacing DOS, have displayed English influence too, though alternatives in a few other languages are now available (where the commercial advantages have justified the development costs, as in French, Russian and German). And it seems likely that the influence of English will grow, as programs become increasingly sophisticated and allow users to make more natural-sounding commands.
It is difficult to predict the future. In a few generations’ time, something so dynamic as the Internet will not be like anything we know today. Automatic speech synthesis and recognition will be routine, and (notwithstanding the difficulties described above) more use will be made of automatic translation. For the immediate future, it is difficult to foresee any developments which could seriously reduce the stature of English on the information superhighway. The biggest potential setback to English as a global language, it has been said with more than a little irony, would have taken place a generation ago — if Bill Gates had grown up speaking Chinese.
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Издатель сказал, что эту книгу можно купить в любом книжном магазине.
2)Жаль, что он не приехал в Москву этим летом.
3)Статья для перевода была гораздо легче, чем мы ожидали.
4)Вы уезжаете завтра, не так ли?
5)Какая прекрасная погода! Давайте поедем за город на выходные.
244
Task 20b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
The Rejection of English
We begin with the situation where the people of a country feel so antagonistic or ambivalent about English that they reject the option to give English a privileged status, either as an official language or as a foreign language. If several countries were to begin thinking in this way, there could in due course be a pendulum swing which would render the claim of global status less credible. The chief reasons for such antipathy were briefly discussed in chapter 1, when we began our inquiry into the general nature of a global language. We may apply this reasoning now, in relation to the particular case of English.
It is inevitable that, in a post-colonial era, there should be a strong reaction against continuing to use the language of the former colonial power, and in favour of promoting the indigenous languages. As the then president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, said in 1974, ‘The basis of any independent government is a national language, and we can no longer continue aping our former colonizers.’ Gandhi, writing in 1908, puts the point more emotively:
‘To give millions a knowledge of English is to enslave them… Is it not a painful thing that, if I want to go to a court of justice, I must employ the English language as a medium; that, when I became a Barrister, I may not speak my mother-tongue, and that someone else should have to translate to me from my own language? Is this not absolutely absurd? Is it not a sign of slavery?’
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Я не приеду, пока не получу от вас письмо.
2)Вчера утром мы ходили на выставку известного американского скульптора.
3)Я хотел узнать, кто его научный руководитель.
4)Мы слышали, как он играл на рояле и что-то пел.
5)Он поздоровался с друзьями и начал рассказывать о занятиях в университете.
245
Task 21b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
Unhappy Colonial Resonance
in People’s Minds
The fact remains that English has an unhappy colonial resonance in the minds of many, and a history where local languages could easily be treated with contempt. Here is another extract from Decolonising the Mind, in which Ngugi wa Thiong’o remembers his schooldays.
English became the language of my formal education. In Kenya, English became more than a language: it was the language, and all the others had to bow before it in deference. Thus one of the most humiliating experiences was to be caught speaking Gikuyu in the vicinity of the school. The culprit was given corporal punishment — three to five strokes of the cane on bare buttocks — or was made to carry a metal plate around the neck with inscriptions such as ‘I AM STUPID’ or ‘I AM A DONKEY’.
It is not difficult to see how antagonism to English can grow, with such memories. Many writers in the former British colonies see themselves as facing a dilemma: if they write in English, their work will have the chance of reaching a worldwide audience; but to write in English may mean sacrificing their cultural identity.
On the whole, the former colonies of the British Empire have stayed with English, but there are some famous instances of rejection. These are Tanzania, where English was jointly official with Swahili until 1967 (thereafter, Swahili became the sole official language); Kenya, where in 1974 English was officially replaced by Swahili; and Malaysia, where the National Language Act of 1967 disestablished English as a joint official language, giving sole status to Malay.
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Я не смогу тебе помочь, пока ты не расскажешь всю правду.
2)Этот красивый дворец был построен много лет тому назад.
3)Мелодия показалась ему знакомой, но он не мог припомнить, где и когда он ее слышал.
4)Кто-то звонил. Я думаю, это была твоя жена.
5)Где же ты был все это время? Мы искали тебя повсюду.
246
Task 22b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
International Varieties of English
These new Englishes are somewhat like the dialects we all recognize within our own country, except that they are on an international scale, applying to whole countries or regions. Instead of affecting mere thousands of speakers, as is typically the case with rural or urban regional dialects, they apply to millions. They are an inevitable consequence of the spread of English on a world scale. The study of language history shows that if two social groups come to be separated only by a mountain range or a wide river, they will soon begin to develop different habits of speech. It should not be surprising, then, to find new national dialects emerging when groups become separated by thousands of miles, and encounter totally different climates, fauna, and flora.
Dialects emerge because they give identity to the groups which own them. If you wish to tell everyone which part of a country you are from, you can wave a flag, wear a label on your coat, or (the most convenient solution, because it is always with you) speak with a distinctive accent and dialect. Similarly, on the world stage, if you wish to tell everyone which country you belong to, an immediate and direct way of doing it is to speak in a distinctive way. These differences become especially noticeable in informal settings; for example, they are currently well represented in discussion groups on the Internet.
International varieties thus express national identities, and are a way of reducing the conflict between intelligibility and identity.
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Он взял меню и сказал: «Ну что же, я полагаю, что ты хочешь есть. Давай посмотрим, что мы можем поесть».
2)Увидев приближающийся поезд, мы поспешили на платформу.
3)Он сидел, опустив голову на руки. Он не слышал, что в то время говорилось.
4)Мы узнали, что эти новости были объявлены по радио.
5)Он говорит уже двадцать минут. Я думаю, что он скоро закончит.
247
Task 23b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
World Standard Spoken English
A new form of English — let us think of it as ‘World Standard Spoken English’ (WSSE) — would almost certainly arise. Indeed, the foundation for such a development is already being laid around us.
Most people are already ‘multidialectal’ to a greater or lesser extent. They use one spoken dialect at home, when they are with their family or talking to other members of their local community: this tends to be an informal variety, full of casual pronunciation, colloquial grammar, and local turns of phrase. They use another spoken dialect when they are away from home, travelling to different parts of their country or interacting with others at their place of work: this tends to be a formal variety, full of careful pronunciation, conventional grammar, and standard vocabulary. Those who are literate have learned a third variety, that of written standard English which (apart from a few minor differences, such as British vs. American spelling) currently unites the English-speaking world.
In a future where there were many national Englishes, little would change. People would still have their dialects for use within their own country, but when the need came to communicate with people from other countries they would slip into WSSE. So, a multinational company might decide to hold a conference at which representatives from each of its country operations would be present. The representatives from Calcutta, for instance, sharing a cab on their way to the conference, would be conversing in informal Indian English.
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Должно быть, это трудный случай, врач занят с больным уже час.
2)Она сказала, что ей не нравится ее квартира.
3)Сколько времени вы носите очки?
4)Позвоните мне через два дня. Я дам вам мой номер телефона.
5)Я видел, как он шел по противоположной стороне улицы.
248
Task 24b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
ELT as a Part of Colonial Policy
First, English language teaching (ELT) was always a highly significant part of colonial policy. Where the empire spread, so too did English. A study of English language teaching and colonialism, therefore, can add important dimensions to the understanding of how colonialism operated. Policies about providing or withholding an education in English were not simple questions to do with the ‘medium of instruction’ (to name the reductive framework in which much discussion of such issues occurs today) but rather were concerned with different views of how best to run a colony. To some, provision of limited English was a pragmatic policy to facilitate colonial rule; to others provision of English was an essential part of the messianic spread of British language and culture. To some, provision of vernacular education was a colonial obligation; to others it was a crucial tool in the development of a workforce able to participate in colonial capitalism; to others it was an important means to maintain the status quo. A study of policies around English language education, therefore, can give important insights into the more general operation of colonialism. Such an understanding also has considerable significance for understanding current language policies.
Second, since the growth of empire also implied a massive growth in English language teaching, the period of colonialism is a highly significant one for the study of the development of ELT.
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Роджер грустно сказал нам, что у него украли коллекцию марок.
2)Инспектор заявил, что уроки нужно сделать более интересными.
3)К тому времени, как мы доберемся до парка, он уже закроется.
4)Передают, что завтра похолодает, но будет солнечно.
5)Выставка откроется в декабре.
249
Task 25b
1. Переведите следующий текст на русский язык.
The Image of English as a Borrowing Language
The second image that emerges here is that to this core of AngloSaxon have been added — like tributaries to the great river of English, as many writers like to describe this — words from languages around the world, suggesting that English and British people have always been flexible and keen to borrow from elsewhere to enrich the language. This image of English is then used to deride other languages for their lack of breadth and, especially when people have sought to safeguard languages from the incursions of English, to claim that English is democratic while other languages are not. Most commonly this argument is used against the French for their attempts to legislate against the use of English words. In the editorial ‘Lingua Britannica’ in The Sunday Times (10 July 1994), the French are attacked for their defensiveness and xenophobia: ‘It is sad to see the French, with their great cultural heritage, being so defensive…. While France seeks to bring the shutters down against alien intrusions of its cultural heritage, the BBC is told to exploit its reputation and products abroad as never before. Who are the xenophobes here?’ Who, indeed?
Thus, the image of English as a great borrowing language is used against any attempts to oppose the spread of English, the argument being that the diverse vocabulary of English is a reflection of the democratic and open nature of the British people, and that reactions against English are nothing but evidence that other people are less open and democratic.
2.Изложите основное содержание текста своими словами на английском языке в 5−6 предложениях.
3.Сформулируйте 5 вопросов, ответы на которые отразили бы основное содержание текста.
4.Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.
1)Редактор газеты заявил, что ни один специальный корреспондент никогда не писал об этом.
2)Не успел я дойти до угла, как услышал сзади чьи-то шаги.
3)Президент сказал, что даст вам знать, какие меры он примет.
4)Мама, кажется, узнала правду и выглядит сердитой.
5)Мы восхищались северным сиянием. Никогда прежде мы не видели ничего более прекрасного.
Task 26b
250